Audio only
Length13h 3m
About this audiobook
“A painful truth of family life: the most tender emotions can change in an instant. You think your parents love you but is it you they love, or the child who is theirs?” --Joyce Carol Oates, My Life as a Rat
Which should prevail: loyalty to family or loyalty to the truth? Is telling the truth ever a mistake and is lying for one’s family ever justified? Can one do the right thing, but bitterly regret it?
My Life as a Rat follows Violet Rue Kerrigan, a young woman who looks back upon her life in exile from her family following her testimony, at age twelve, concerning what she knew to be the racist murder of an African-American boy by her older brothers. In a succession of vividly recalled episodes Violet contemplates the circumstances of her life as the initially beloved youngest child of seven Kerrigan children who inadvertently “informs” on her brothers, setting into motion their arrests and convictions and her own long estrangement.
Arresting and poignant, My Life as a Rat traces a life of banishment from a family—banishment from parents, siblings, and the Church—that forces Violet to discover her own identity, to break the powerful spell of family, and to emerge from her long exile as a “rat” into a transformed life.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.9 (9K)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
GenreGeneral Fiction, Mystery and Thriller
Length13 hrs 3 mins
Narrated bySadie Alexandru
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJun 4, 2019
LanguageEnglish
The Lost LandscapeJoyce Carol Oates11h 25m3.9 (1.2K)$29 · $0.00
The SacrificeJoyce Carol Oates10h 57m3.3 (2.8K)$29 · $0.00
A Widow's StoryJoyce Carol Oates14h 54m3.8 (6.4K)$33 · $0.00
With Shuddering FallJoyce Carol Oates10h 33m3.3 (328)$29 · $0.00
Hazards of Time TravelJoyce Carol Oates8h 49m3.3 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
SourlandJoyce Carol Oates14h 17m3.7 (1.3K)$33 · $0.00
Black Dahlia & White RoseJoyce Carol Oates8h 46m3.4 (1.6K)$29 · $0.00
Soul at the White HeatJoyce Carol Oates15h 12m3.5 (168)$33 · $0.00
The AccursedJoyce Carol Oates22h 55m3.4 (9K)$46 · $0.00
BellefleurJoyce Carol Oates30h 15m3.8 (3.5K)$53 · $0.00
The (Other) YouJoyce Carol Oates10h 3m3.6 (1.6K)$29 · $0.00
My Heart Laid BareJoyce Carol Oates24h 4m3.8 (1.1K)$53 · $0.00
BreatheJoyce Carol Oates10h 46m2.9 (1.8K)$29 · $0.00
Son of the MorningJoyce Carol Oates14h 46m3.6 (393)$33 · $0.00
SolsticeJoyce Carol Oates7h 16m3.6 (1.3K)$24 · $0.00
Beautiful DaysJoyce Carol Oates13h 6m3.6 (1.3K)$33 · $0.00
American MelancholyJoyce Carol Oates1h 53m3.7 (1.1K)$16 · $0.00
The Man Without a ShadowJoyce Carol Oates13h 34m3.4 (3.3K)$33 · $0.00
Lovely, Dark, DeepJoyce Carol Oates16h 12m3.7 (2.5K)$33 · $0.00
Ethic IIAshley Antoinette9h 1m4.7 (8K)$20
RiversnowTess Thompson8h 11m4.7 (1.3K)$20
Supreme ClienteleAshley & JaQuavis8h 58m4.7 (3.4K)$20
Body Refinement in a Beast Tamer’s World, Book 1Seth Ring14h 7m4.7 (1.3K)$27
Desperate MeasuresBrenda Jackson8h 59m4.7 (669)$28 · $0.00
Searching For ThanksgivingS.E. Smith4h 24m4.8 (395)$20
Naughty 4Brenda Hampton7h 30m4.7 (726)$17
The Dance with Me TrilogyShelley Shepard Gray21h 44m4.7 (1.2K)$35
The DopemanJaQuavis Coleman5h 25m4.7 (3.8K)$20
BAEJahquel J.5h 22m4.7 (3.1K)$20
Dark RisingJeffrey Wilson, Brian Andrews13h 47m4.7 (1.3K)$27
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Grand Opening 2Carl Weber9h 16m4.7 (2.4K)$20
Sons of Valor II: Violence of ActionBrian Andrews, Jeffrey Wilson12h 34m4.6 (3.6K)$23
Malevolent MagicMildred Abbott7h 13m4.7 (1.2K)$17
Bikes, Toys, and Hot BoyzGenesis Woods, Shantaé13h 9m4.7 (722)$23
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
War LordBernard Cornwell13h 21m4.6 (33.1K)$33 · $0.00
Ghetto BastardK’wan7h 37m4.6 (2.9K)$20
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
The New Human Revolution, vol. 1Daisaku Ikeda7h 46m4.7 (669)$12 · $0.00
Meddlesome MoneyMildred Abbott8h 21m4.7 (1.3K)$20
Dark RisingJeffrey Wilson, Brian Andrews13h 47m4.7 (1.3K)$27
Midnight ShadowsS.E. Smith5h 40m4.7 (2.5K)$17
CollateralBrian Andrews, Jeffrey Wilson13h 8m4.6 (7K)$23
The ReunionJana Deleon6h 31m4.6 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
Animal 3K’wan6h 33m4.6 (2.8K)$20
To Hold and ProtectSandra Owens7h 59m4.6 (1.1K)$8 · $0.00
Extinction WarNicholas Sansbury Smith12h 1m4.6 (6K)$23
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Complete Edition)Arthur Conan Doyle12h 28m4.6 (286.7K)$2 · $0.00
Savy WisdomPeggy McColl2h 53m4.7 (448)$15
3 a.m. Premium: Books 1–5Nick Pirog15h 27m4.6 (8.2K)$25
Farewell My Lovely (Annotated)Raymond Chandler10h 37m4.6 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Labyrinth of the SpiritsCarlos Ruiz Zafon27h 55m4.5 (77.2K)$53 · $0.00
Tracing Killer EvidenceJodie Bailey5h 46m4.7 (242)$12 · $0.00
Sign of the MakerBrian Shea7h 13m4.6 (2.5K)$17
No Sin UnpunishedLynDee Walker7h 43m4.6 (1.4K)$17
Sherlock HolmesMade for Success14h 22m4.5 (4.3K)$25
Sons of War 4: SoldiersNicholas Sansbury Smith, Tom Abrahams12h 54m4.6 (507)$25
Murder in the TowerRoy Lewis8h 23m4.6 (784)$20
You may also like
Missing OkaleeLaura Ojeda Melchor5h 25m4.2 (343)$17
A CHILD OF THE JAGO (Modern Classics Series)Arthur Morrison7h 25m3.9 (3.7K)$2 · $0.00
Taylor Before and AfterJennie Englund6h 56m4.1 (428)$17
The Con Man’s DaughterCandice Curry5h 33m4.3 (780)$20
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. IllustratedCharles Dickens19h 32m4.0 (408.2K)$2 · $0.00
Paper NamesSusie Luo8h 7m3.9 (10.5K)$26 · $0.00
Hell’s Diva 2Anna J.7h 50m4.3 (309)$20
AuēBecky Manawatu10h 54m4.4 (9.6K)$20
Girl on TrialKathleen Fine8h 59m4.0 (1.4K)$23
SnapSusin Nielsen9h 48m4.2 (2K)$29 · $0.00
You Made Me This WayShannon Molloy8h 9m4.4 (567)$26 · $0.00
Dog FoodRaynesha Pittman5h 25m4.4 (2K)$20
Songs Only You KnowSean Madigan Hoen12h 3m4.1 (352)$23 · $0.00
Domestic AffairsEileen Goudge18h 31m3.7 (2K)$30 · $0.00
That Girl Is PoisonTia Hines8h 55m4.3 (676)$20
Young-Minded HustlerTysha9h4.6 (339)$20
Kashtanka and Other Short StoriesAnton Chekhov4h 22m4.2 (2.1K)$2.30
Girls from da Hood 8Treasure Hernandez, Natalie Weber6h 35m4.3 (377)$20
Love And Other BattlesTess Woods10h 9m4.2 (966)$29 · $0.00
The Border Between UsRudy Ruiz9h 10m4.4 (525)$23